One of the biggest scars from the
housing crisis – foreclosures – is rapidly fading away. Foreclosure
activity posted a 15 percent month-to-month drop from October to
November – the largest monthly drop in three years, RealtyTrac reports
in its latest foreclosure report. What’s more, foreclosure filings have
posted a 37 percent decrease from year ago levels.
Reports on foreclosure filings, default notices, auctions, and bank repossessions all showed big declines in the latest report.
“I think that [the housing crisis is] really in the rear-view
mirror,” Daren Blomquist, vice president at RealtyTrac, told ABC News.
The number of homes entering the foreclosure process has dropped by
two-thirds since the peak of the housing crisis in 2010. The number of
homes that have started the foreclosure process has fallen to its lowest
level since December 2005.
“While some of the decrease in November can be attributed to
seasonality, the depth and breadth of the decrease provides strong
evidence that we are entering the ninth inning of this foreclosure
crisis with the outcome all but guaranteed,” says Blomquist. “While
foreclosures will likely continue to stage a weak rally in certain
markets next year as the last of the distress left over from the Great
Recession is dealt with, it is highly unlikely that there will be a
foreclosure comeback that poses any major threat to the solid housing
recovery that has now taken hold.”
Source: RealtyTrac and “Foreclosures Plunge as Housing Crisis Retreats,” ABC News (Dec. 12, 2013)